Brooke Shields reflects on being made a ‘sex symbol’ at a young age and how she turned the page on fame

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Brooke Shields is reflecting on the controversy surrounding her early fame.

During a recent interview, Shields — who is currently promoting her new Acorn TV mystery-comedy series, “You’re Killing Me” — opened up about becoming a “sex symbol” at such a young age and detailed how she was able to turn the page later in life.

“Believe me, I would’ve done it a couple of decades before,” Shields told AARP of her breakout comedic turn on “Friends.” She played the stalker of Matt LeBlanc’s character, Joey. “But that wasn’t what people wanted of me. They wanted me to be this, I don’t know, sex symbol … and that was fine.”

Brooke Shields standing at the Forbes and Mika Brzezinski 50 Over 50 Celebration in New York City

“Doing sketch comedy,” said Shields, “I was always happiest.”

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The actress rose to fame at the age of 11 when she played a child prostitute in “Pretty Baby,” which featured Shields in multiple nude scenes. As a 10-year-old, Shields posed naked for the Playboy publication Sugar’n’Spice.

“I was at the center of it,” Shields said during a panel at the South by Southwest Festival in 2024. “And I was promoting it, and I was doing it.”

She continued, “And I was lucky because I was surrounded by a very strong mom. I never did move to Hollywood. I always went to regular school.”

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“So I had this sort of community around me that was protecting me, buoying me. And so I did not become the type of statistic that Hollywood created,” Shields added.

Brooke Shields at the Chloe fashion at Paris Fashion Week in March 2026.

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“Hollywood is predicated on eating its young.”

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During that same panel discussion, Shields also opened up about ageism in Hollywood.

“At 58, you’re too old to be the ingénue but not quite the granny yet,” Shields said.

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She continued, “I find my reaction is to instead of get angry, find and ferret out the filmmakers who appreciate a woman over 40 and appreciate the life experience, the ‘we’ve raised the children, we’ve had the families, we’ve had businesses, we’ve had professional lives, we’ve left them, we’ve gone back to them.”

“There are people out there who want to cater their programming to women of that age.”

“My entire career has been built on beauty. As I’ve gotten older I want my message to be appreciative, but beauty as a wellness,” she added. “We’re not just wrinkle cream.”

“We need to change the narrative and say that there is beauty in this age.”

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Hume contributed to this post.

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